Real Name Requirements Drive Online Opinion

Even though real-name ID registering on Sina microblog hasn’t been made official yet, and there are few signs of implementation, real name ID is a change that is gaining attention.

The reason for real name registration is for the greater control on the Chinese internet. Wang Chen, minister of the State Council Information Office, justified the government’s policy to counter “false, illegal and obscene information that might harm the healthy development of the Internet in China.”

But concerns about the policy as well as the failure to implement the system for those already registered and those outside of China, seems to be reflected in comments on the Sina microblog:

“LittleParty” (小党), a blogger who has over 20,000 fans and is also a journalist at Southern Metropolis Daily (南方都市报), said:

Sina’s real name system is directed at the domestic market, if you were registering for Sina microblog outside of the country, you don’t need to input your real name. Is this the superiority of socialism?

Liu Xiaoyuan (刘晓原), a prominent lawyer, questioned why the real name system is needed when there is already a verification process at play, much like Twitter. He hints that it’s political as much as anything else:

According to Beijing’s regulations, Sina microblog must use the real name system (this is related to the backstage), but right now Sina microblog already gives a group of people a “V” [for verifcation], what use is a real name system then?

A famous television host, Meng Fei (孟非) has said on his own microblog that it is useless to point to the argument that “the great masses” wants real name system, because they clearly don’t:

When I hear of this I want to cuss! You can do whatever you want, no-one can stop you, but if you say that the real name system for the internet is “the wishes of the masses” please then give me your evidence!